MMCBE dataset: drone imagery, 3D point clouds, and biomass ground truth of cotton (2022-2023 season)

Crop biomass, a critical indicator of plant growth, health, and productivity, is invaluable for crop breeding programs and agronomic research. However, the accurate and scalable quantification of crop biomass remains inaccessible due to limitations in existing measurement methods. One of the obstacles impeding the advancement of current crop biomass prediction methodologies is the scarcity of publicly available datasets. Addressing this gap, we introduce a new dataset in this domain, i.e. multi-modality dataset for crop biomass estimation (MMCBE). Comprising 216 sets of multi-view drone images, coupled with LiDAR point clouds, and hand-labelled ground truth, MMCBE represents the first multi-modality one in the field. This dataset aims to establish benchmark methods for crop biomass quantification and foster the development of vision-based approaches. We have rigorously evaluated state-of-the-art crop biomass estimation methods using MMCBE and ventured into additional potential applications, such as 3D crop reconstruction from drone imagery and novel-view rendering. With this publication, we are making our comprehensive dataset available to the broader community.\nLineage: The experimental area (0.216 ha) was scanned weekly by a P1 camera with the DJI M300 flying 12 m above ground at a speed of 1.5 m/s. The drone captured a new image for every 4 m travelled. Biomass ground truth was collected on the day a flight was performed. We chose 9-time points, targeting key phenological plant stages during periods of high growth rate. The 9 time points are "25-Jan", "03-Feb", "08-Feb", "16-Feb", "23-Feb", "08-Mar", "15-Mar", "22-Mar", and "03-Apr". One meters of above ground plant material was cut at ground level from the 'destructive' data collection section of each plot. Plants were sampled from alternate rows up each plot to avoid any edge effects associated with reduced plant competition associated with previous biomass harvests. The number of plants and fresh weight were recorded. All sampled plants were then cut into ~50mm pieces and dried at 60 °C until no change in sample weight was observed (around 48 h). Over the crop life cycle (6 months), we collected 216 (9 x 24) multi-view image sets with manually-measured biomass ground truth.\n